Free-choice game

ABSTRACT

A game wherein a pellet is dropped into an upper opening in a housing for movement through a passageway into one of a plurality of lower openings. Each lower opening has a closure or door to initially conceal the pellet and the floor of the opening slopes downwardly away from the closure. This sloping, by biasing the pellet away from the door, helps to prevent detection of the particular door concealing the pellet. The pellet, by being disc shaped, saves overall depth in the housing and further aids in preventing detection.

Primary Examiner-Anton O. Oechsle Assistant ExaminerArnold W. Kramer Attorney-Robert K. Youtie United States Patent Joseph A. Weisbeeker [72] Inventor Sept. 17, 1969 [45] Patented Aug. 17, 1971 ABSTRACT: A game wherein a pellet is dropped into an upper opening in a housing for movement through a passageway into one of a plurality of lower openings. Each lower opening has a closure or door to initially conceal the pellet and the floor of the opening slopes downwardly away from the closure. This sloping. by biasing the pellet away from the door, helps to prevent detection of the particular door concealing the pellet. The pellet, by being dise shaped. saves overall depth in the housing and further aids in prcventmg detection.

2 4 W II /33B 3 7 2 W A M u S m T m w d.T m" A u" .mm S Em mmm n M m: mT A m m .IS m m mm mew n m mmm N 4 u" .u modem k mm FSUI M MUN m U UUU U PATENTED AUG I 71971 ,22 411/ II A INVENTOR JOSEPH A. WEISBECKER ATTOR N EY educational devices or games FREE-CHOICE GAME BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The instant invention relates generally to amusement and of the type disclosed in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,190,656, and constitutes an improvement thereover.

While the device of said patent serves well to achieve its intended objects, it was found under certain circumstances that a hidden pellet may impinge upon its concealing door or closure, and thereby reveal the presence of the pellet. Also, the disclosure of said prior patent illustrated the use of spherical pellets or balls, which required a housing of substantial depth.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an important object of the present invention to provide a free-choice game device of the type described wherein the existence or presence of a pellet behind 'a particular closure or door is not revealed by engagement of the pellet with the door.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a free-choice apparatus having the advantageous characteristics mentioned in the preceding paragraph, wherein a relatively shallow or thin housing may be employed to effect substantial economies in manufacture and distribution, while also permitting of using disc-shaped pellets rather than spherical pellets, for effecting additional economies.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a free-choice game device of the type described which is extremely simple in construction, capable of neat and highly attractive design, and which is adapted to be economically manufactured as a staunch and durable structure for durability and reliability throughout a long useful life.

Other objects of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the following specification and referring to the accompanying drawings, which form a material part of this disclosure.

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combinations of elements, and arrangements of parts, which will be exemplified in the construction hereinafter described, and of which the scope will be indicated by the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS taken generally along generally along the line 3-3 DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now more particularly to the drawings, and specifically to FIG. 1 thereof, the free-choice apparatus of the present invention is there generally designated 10, and includes an enclosed housing 11. The housing 11 may assume the external configuration of a toy house, as illustrated, or other desired appearance, and is formed of a pair of generally flat, complementary rear and front sections 12 and 13 upstanding from a supporting member or base 14.

More specifically, the rear housing section 12 may have a generally rectangular outline configuration defining a body part 16, and a laterally offset, upward extension 17 projecting from and coplanar with the body part.

A forwardly opening groove extends downwardly, as at 18 through the upper end 19 of the upward projection 17 and into the body part 16, where it curves, as at 20, for opening into a bifurcated or forked grooved region 21. The upwardly opening groove region 18, its downwardly curving region 20 and the bifurcated groove region 21 all open forwardly through the front surface of the rear housing section 12, Further, formed in the lower region of rear housing section body 16 are a pair of generally downwardly extending branch grooves 22 and 23 communicating with the bifurcated region 21 and terminating at a lower region of the rear housing section. The rear housing section 12 may be formed internally with an obstruction or corner 25 extending into the bifurcated region 21, for a purpose appearing presently. Also, the region 26 of the rear housing section 12 intermediate the branch grooves 22 and 23 may have its upper end pointed, as at 27. The sidewalls of the grooved regions 18, 20, 21, 22 and 23 may all be generally normal to the forward surface 29 of the rear housing section 12.

The front housing section 13 may be of an outline configuration generally congruent to that of the rear housing section 12, including a generally rectangular lower portion 30, and an .upper extension projecting upwardly from the upper edge of the front section, corresponding in outline configuration to that of the rear section upper projection 17.

The lower region of the front housing section 30 is formed with a pair of laterally spaced through openings, which may be of generally rectangular configuration, as at 31 and 32. Additionally, a pair of rearwardly facing grooves, as at 33 in FIG. 2, extend upwardly from each front section opening 31 and 32, the groove extending upwardly from opening 32 not being shown. A generally rectangular slidable door or closure is inserted in each opening 31 and 32, as at 35 and 36 for sliding movement into and out of closing relation with the respective opening.

That is, the slidable closure or door 35 is slidable between the closed position shown in the drawings, and an upper open position received in the rearwardly facing groove 33. Similarly, the slidable door or closure 36 is vertically shiftable between a downward closed position and an upward open position. Suitable manually actuable means, such as knobs 37 and 38 are provided on the outer, forward sides of doors 35 and 36 for hand operation of the doors. The openings 31 and 32 may be provided along their side edges with flanges, as at 40 and 41, respectively, best seen in FIG. 4, retaining the doors 35 and 36 in their sliding relation. The lower bounding edges of the openings 31 and 32 need not be provided with retaining flanges, but may, if desired.

In the assembled condition, it will now be apparent that the openings 31 and 32 of the front section 13 are respectively in forward alignment with the lower ends of branch grooves 22 and 23. Further, the front section 13 overlies and closes the forward side of the grooves or groove regions 18, 20, 21, and the upper portions of branch groove regions 18 and 20 combine to define an upwardly opening passageway which communicates at its lower end into a bifurcated passageway defined by forwardly closed groove region 21, which latter passageway communicated downwardly into branches or branch passageways defined by branch grooves 22 and 23. As the grooves formed in the rear housing section 12 are of a shallow, generally rectangular configuration, the passageways defined by such grooves are of a forwardly and rearwardly shallow, generally rectangular crosssectional configuration.

Suitable securing means may be employed to retain the front and rear housing sections 13 and 12 in their facing engagement, if desired. However, the base 14 is formed with an upwardly opening groove 43 which snugly receives the lower edge regions of the rear and front housing sections to retain the same in their facing engagement.

As best seen in FIG. 2, the groove 43 in base 14 is disposed to slant rearwardly. By this construction, the housing 11 and its facing sections 12 and 13 slant upwardly and rearwardly. Further, the lower end walls 44 and 45 of respective branch passageways are disposed to decline rearwardly to the bottom or rear surface of the lower branch grooves 22 and 23.

grooves 22 and 23. Thus, the i In operation, a pellet, such as a disc-shaped pellet 46, may be dropped downwardly into upper passageway region 18, gravitationally passing therealong through curved passageway region 20 and thence into bifurcated passageway region 21. By chance, the pellet will move laterally into one or the other branch passageways 22 and 23, the pellet being engageable, by chance, with corner 25 and further engageable, by chance, with point 27 of interbranch land 26. A given pellet therefore drops by chance into one or the other branch passageways 22, being located therein behind the associated opaque closure 35 and 36. By the rearward declination of the branch passageway lower end walls 44 and 45, a pellet resting thereon will tend to lean rearward away from the adjacent closure or door 35, 36, so that the presence of the pellet in a particular branch passageway will not be revealed.

Of course, the number of branch passageways may be greater, if desired, and the pellets may be of varying characteristics, to enlarge the areas of free choice.

From the foregoing, it is seen that the present invention provides a free-choice apparatus which fully accomplishes its intended objects and is well adapted to meet practical conditions of manufacture and use.

Although the present invention has been described in some detail by way of illustration and example for purposes of clarity of understanding, it is understood that certain changes and modifications may be made within the spirit of the invention.

What I claim is:

l. A free-choice apparatus comprising an enclosed housing of light-impermeable material concealing the interior thereof and having an upper opening and a plurality of lower openings, said housing being provided with an internal passageway extending downward from said upper opening and having a plurality of branches communicating with respective lower openings, said passageway and branches being configured for gravitational travel of pellets from said upper opening to said lower openings in a random relation, a plurality of light-impermeable openable closures respectively associated with said lower openings, and manually actuable means for selectively opening said closures for chance location of pellets in said lower openings, said lower openings each having a bottom wall sloping downwardly away from the respective closure, whereby pellets on said bottom walls fall away from the respective closure to further conceal the presence of pellets in said openings.

2. A free-choice apparatus according to claim 1, said passageway and branches being disposed in an inclined plane sloping upwardly and away from said lower openings.

3. A free-choice apparatus according to claim 1, said passageway and branches being of laterally elongate configuration for accommodating disc-shaped pellets.

4. A free-choice apparatus according to claim 1, said housing comprising a pair of complementary front and rear sections, said rear section being formed with forwardly opening grooves defining said internal passageway and branches, and said front section extending over said grooves to close the latter and having a pair of through apertures defining said lower openings.

5. A free-choice apparatus according to claim 1, said passageway and branches being disposed in an inclined plane sloping upwardly and away from said lower openings, and said passageway and branches being of laterally elongate configuration for receiving and passing disc-shaped pellets. 

1. A free-choice apparatus comprising an enclosed housing of light-impermeable material concealing the interior thereof and having an upper opening and a plurality of lower openings, said housing being provided with an internal passageway extending downward from said upper opening and having a plurality of branches communicating with respective lower openings, said passageway and branches being configured for gravitational travel of pellets from said upper opening to said lower openings in a random relation, a plurality of light-impermeable openable closures respectively associated with said lower openings, and manually actuable means for selectively opening said closures for chance location of pellets in said lower openings, said lower openings each having a bottom wall sloping downwardly away from the respective closure, whereby pellets on said bottom walls fall away from the respective closure to further conceal the presence of pellets in said openings.
 2. A free-choice apparatus according to claim 1, said passageway and branches being disposed in an inclined plane sloping upwardly and away from said lower openings.
 3. A free-choice apparatus according to claim 1, said passageway and branches being of laterally elongate configuration for accommodating disc-shaped pellets.
 4. A free-choice apparatus according to claim 1, said housing comprising a pair of complementary front and rear sections, said rear section being formed with forwardly opening grooves defining said internal passageway and branches, and said front section extending over said grooves to close the latter and having a pair of through apertures defining said lower openings.
 5. A free-choice apparatus according to claim 1, said passageway and branches being disposed in an inclined plane sloping upwardly and away from said lower oPenings, and said passageway and branches being of laterally elongate configuration for receiving and passing disc-shaped pellets. 